“Raj! Wake up Raj.”

“Let me sleep, man. What time is it?”

“Its 8:30. Get up.”

“What 8:30 only. Let me sleep for another 15mins please.”

“No”

“Okay just 5mins”

Then sud­denly I felt like I was drown­ing in the ocean. I woke up, breath­ing heavily.

“Huh what hap­pened” when I opened my eyes I saw, Rohit is stand­ing near me hold­ing a water jug and laugh­ing hysterically.

“I was hav­ing such a nice dream. I was on an island sur­rounded by girls. You ruined everything.”

“Yeah, you wish that would come true. Sorry to bust your bub­ble, but it is never going to happen.”

“You are jealous.”

“Yeah Right! Any­ways, remem­ber you need to pick Nisha up for college.”

“Who’s Nisha?”

“Your new neighbour.”

“Oh yes. I com­pletely forgot.”

“Hurry up, have a bath and come down I will be wait­ing for you.”

“Who will have a bath? You gave me one, that’s enough.” I hur­ried out of bed and wiped myself. Put on my jeans and searched for a Tee to wear.

“You come down I will wait for you.”

I was down in a few sec­onds. Mom and Rohit were hav­ing a chat. I had my break­fast. I hur­ried with Rohit to Nisha’s place. Ding-​​dong.

“Hi Aunty, Good Morning”

“Good Morn­ing!”

“Aunty can you call Nisha, we need to rush to col­lege. We are get­ting late.”

“Come sit. I will call her. She was wait­ing for you.”

The house looked nice, but still lot of pack­ages were lying in the corner.

“We haven’t unpacked as yet prop­erly.” Nisha’s mom said. She was very sweet.

“Nisha, Raj is here. Come soon.”

“Okay mom.” A voice came from inside.

Nisha came out and she was look­ing gor­geous. Wear­ing a nice blue jacket; with a red Tee, and a blue jeans. I wouldn’t say she put on a lot of makeup, didn’t need to, if you ask me, nice sharp fea­tures and a smile to die for.

“Shall we move guys.” said Nisha.

“Oh! Yes, of course, why not. You’re look­ing gor­geous.” I said.

“Thanks.”

She sat behind me and Rohit drove his new bike. He is crazy about bikes, like me.

“Boy! Am I lucky today? Every­body in the col­lege will be jeal­ous. The most beau­ti­ful girl in the col­lege is sit­ting behind me on my bike.”

“Stop flirt­ing Raj.”

“No I am seri­ous. It is not every day that you have a beau­ti­ful girl sit­ting on your bike. Thank you for the honour.”

“Yeah right! Now look for­ward and drive safely.”

“Hon­estly! I am telling you the truth. Okay, here, we have reached col­lege. Let’s go to the class.”

Another set of bor­ing lec­tures. Man these pro­fes­sor outdo them­selves every day, they get even more bor­ing. It was get­ting dif­fi­cult to sit through these classes. Rohit and I sat behind Nisha and her new friend. The girl sit­ting next to Nisha was very beau­ti­ful. She had a fair com­plex­ion, lovely blue eyes, beau­ti­ful long hair, and long legs. She had a nice sparkle in her eyes. I could not take my eyes off her. The only good things about these bor­ing lec­tures are that I could just look at her. She was wear­ing a white sal­war kameez, with a white dupatta. Oh she looked amaz­ing. I wish I could talk to her. Need to ask Nisha to intro­duce me to her.

Finally, the day got over. We moved to the park­ing lot. Every­body looked so tired. I took Nisha aside and asked her “What is the name of the girl sit­ting next to you?”

“Why? You want to flirt with her as well?”

“Come on. Not flirt, but wanted to get to know her. After all we are going to be study­ing together right?”

“Morn­ing you flirted with me and now her. Wow Raj you are such a charmer!” She elbowed me. “Her name is Diya”

“Thanks. I owe you one.” We moved back to where Diya and Rohit were standing.

“Hey! Diya want to come with us for a cup of cof­fee.” I asked.

“No Raj. I’m tired plus I have to go to my com­puter classes this evening.”

“Come on it will just take 10 min.”

“No Raj. May be some other time.“

“Next time. Sure.”

“Def­i­nite. Bye guys. Bye Nisha.”

“Bye Diya.”

Diya walked towards her car. Nisha sat behind me and we started off Rohit fol­lowed alongside.

“So Raj what was that all about? Diya want to have some cof­fee.” Rohit said in a teas­ing tone.

“Just try­ing to make a new friend, that’s all.”

“Sure we under­stand don’t we Rohit.” Nisha also joined in with Rohit to tease me.

“Never took me out for a cup off cof­fee, in all these years.” Rohit per­sisted with his teasing.

“No way, He is a gonner.” Nisha joined the tease.

“Okay, okay I will take you both out some­time.” I said in an irri­tated tone.

“Why not today?” Nisha continued.

“Lit­tle busy you see.”

“I know, snor­ing in lec­tures and now you are busy, must be very tired also.” Nisha

“You guys are just too much.” Boy, say some­thing in front of them and they make an issue out of it.

We reached our apartments.

“So Nisha what are your plans for the evening, going out somewhere?”

“Noth­ing in par­tic­u­lar, just read­ing a novel.”

“Must be one of those Mills and Boons right?” I said.

“No”

“Why don’t you come over to the ter­race at around 5pm. We will intro­duce you to the gang.” Said Rohit. His first few words in an hour.

“Okay. Raj, call me up before you go.”

“Sure. Its 3, I will meet you in 2 hours.”

We all moved towards the lift. Rohit came over to my place. Nisha went home.

“Mom I am hun­gry. These lec­tures are very tir­ing. Can you make some­thing for us? We are head­ing for our room.” I said.

“Sure Son, will send some snacks right away.”

I just dropped dead on my bed. Rohit switched on some music.

“So Rohit what do you think about Diya.”

“She is a sweet girl.” Rohit was still con­cen­trat­ing on pick­ing a song. Not inter­ested in what I was say­ing at all. He did not real­ize I was star­ing at him.

“What about Nisha?”

It caught his atten­tion imme­di­ately. He looked at me, as if he never heard me. I repeated the question.

“Oh she is beau­ti­ful. She gelled with us so well. She is so friendly and lovely to talk too.”

“WOW! Dude you didn’t even talk to her that much. Some­thing is def­i­nitely fishy. “

Our house maid knocked and came in with some cold cof­fee and some snacks. We quenched our­selves. I went to have a bath. Then at around 5 min to 5 we went over to Nisha’s place. Nisha opened the door.

“Hi lets go. Oth­ers would be waiting.”

“Just a sec­ond. I will be right there with you.” Nisha said.

She was look­ing more amaz­ing then in the morning.

We moved towards the ter­race. All our friends were sit­ting at our usual place. Some­thing about our gang — We are twelve friends, 7 guys includ­ing Rohit and myself and 5 girls. Quiet a large gang. We have all been together since child­hood. We are big brats of our apartment.

“Hi friends!”

“Meet our new gang mem­ber Nisha, she has just moved in the house next to mine. She has come from Delhi and by coin­ci­dence study­ing B.Sc. in our col­lege, in our class.”

“Hi every­body” Nisha said softly.

“Wel­come to the gang.” I said.

“Nisha let me intro­duce you to every­body. Let’s start with Jug­head in short Jugs.” I Pointed to the fat­test guy in our group. He is a Sar­dar. His real name is Deepak; we call him Jugs because he loves to eat.”

“Hi Nisha” jugs in a low tone slightly embarrassed.

“The guy next to him is Sahil. He is a genius with a gui­tar in his hand.”

“Stop flat­ter­ing Raj. Hi Nisha!”

“The guy next to him is Aakash. He is the agony uncle of our group. Any prob­lems just go to him. He always has a ready solu­tion for every problem.”

“Hi Nisha”

“Hi”

“The guy next to him is the joker of our group, we call him Bugs. His name is ….”

“Hi! Let me intro­duce myself, I am Karan. You wanna hear a joke.” even before Nisha could say any­thing he started. “Why did the bas­ket­ball player threw his watch out of the win­dow on a date?”

“No idea” Nisha. Try­ing to guess.

“He wanted a time out.” He starts laugh­ing madly and every­body joins in.

“Nisha don’t mind his stu­pid PJ’s the girl next to him is Musi. Her real name is Muskan She loves to stand in front of the mir­ror and admire her­self. She thinks she is Miss India.”

“Stop it Raj” She said pinch­ing me.” Hi Nisha nice to meet you”

“Same here.’ Nisha said.

“And that’s Riya. She loves danc­ing. She is a won­der­ful dancer and has done a num­ber of stage shows too.”

“Wow” Nisha.

“Nice meet­ing you.” Riya

“The girl next to her is the ever so sweet Puja.”

“Hi Nisha!”

“See what I meant she has such a sweet voice.”

“The girl stand­ing next to me is your high­ness the queen of queens Sak­shi. She is just class apart. Nobody can match her in any­thing she lives in a high soci­ety you see.” I pull her hair while telling.

“Behave Raj. Hello Nisha” hit­ting me.

“Hi”

“Hey guys! Where are the twins?” I felt some­body com­ing from behind, I turned to see. “Here they are, Nisha he is Manav and she’s Khushi. They are fra­ter­nal twins. Manav loves play­ing foot­ball and cars, Khushi loves singing. They are the heart and soul of our group.”

“Hi Nisha” said Manav.

“Nisha come with us.” Khushi took Nisha and the girls went to another cor­ner. We guys started play­ing cricket. After some­time it started to rain. We rushed back home.